Late last month, Amazon announced that customers subscribed to The New York Times via its eReader would qualify for a free digital subscription to the paper’s website. Not to be outdone, Barnes & Noble today announced that users subscribed to The Times via the NOOK Newsstand will also have full access to the publication’s web content, too. The famed paper made waves on March 17th when it announced that it was moving to a pay wall model for its website. Users are allowed to read twenty NYT articles each month before they bump into the new toll booth and are required to pay for access. While the publication noted that those subscribed to its traditional home delivery service would be given full-access to all online content, it was not made clear how those digesting the Times via eReaders would be affected. The full press release is after the break. More →

The CTIA Wireless conference is just around the corner, and in preparation for the three day extravaganza, the Wireless Association is starting to make its final preparations for the event. Part of these preparations include listing the finalists for conference awards, and the “Phones/Smartphones” category has yielded some interesting information. The first three finalists include the HTC ThunderBolt, Motorola ATRIX 4G, and LG Revolution. The final two candidates included on the list are two, unnamed LG handsets simply listed as “LG Mobile Phones.” What could these mysterious handsets be? PCMag, the discoverer of the mysterious device listings, suspects that one of the devices could be T-Mobile’s version of the Optimus 2X — the unannounced but expected Optimus G2X. If we had to venture a guess as to what the second device might be: we would assume that it is a version of the company’s dual-core Optiums 3D handset we saw at Mobile World Congress. Which carrier the handset will land on is, however, anyones guess. BGR will be roaming the halls of the Orange County Convention Center to bring you all the CTIA news as it breaks, be sure to keep your browser locked here during the week of the 21st! More →

Late yesterday, Apple went live with their Chinese web storefront — apple.com.cn — and iOS App Store. The Cupertino company boasts that all 300,000 iOS applications will be available in China and that users can now: “shop online for Apple products including the revolutionary iPhone 4 and the magical iPad. Apple’s online store in China features free shipping, free personalized engraving on any iPod or iPad, and the ability to custom configure any Mac with just a few clicks.” We’re sure gaining access to another 1.3 billion potential consumers can’t hurt Apple’s bottom line. Hit the jump for the full press release. More →